The Kabbalist (26 page)

J
onathan Bennet’s home
in Jerusalem’s German Colony was a small building surrounded by a garden, with
an ornamental pediment above its entrance. Jeanne and Luria went through the
gate and walked the path to the door. Luria pressed the doorbell and the two of
them almost jumped in surprise; the sound was strong, deep and clear – the chime
of a church bell.

A light was switched on
inside and they heard footsteps. Then, the door opened and they were facing
Professor Jonathan Bennet of the Institute of Christian Studies of the Hebrew
University.

Jeanne and Luria were
taken aback. Bennet was a good-looking strong-built man. He looked more like a
football player than a professor of Christian Studies. “Jeanne? Yossi?” he had
a deep, pleasant voice.

The two nodded and
smiled.

“I am Jonathan Bennet.”

“We are very glad to
meet you, Professor.” Jeanne was first to come around and shake his hand.

“It is an honor,
Professor.” Luria joined too and was rewarded with a mighty handshake.

“Please call me
Jonathan,” said Bennet. “I would rather be addressed by my first name. After so
many years in this country, I was won over by Israeli informality. I prefer to
keep the academic titles for formal occasions. Do come in.”

There was something
captivating about the man and even the skeptical Luria liked him at first
sight. A few minutes later, the three of them were seated around a coffee table
in Bennet’s living room, with cups of hot coffee laid in front of them. “So how
can I help you?” asked Bennet, looking at Jeanne.

“I am a student of
history at the University of Caen in Normandy," opened Jeanne. “While
searching the basement of my family's estate for material for a thesis, I came
across a few old letters sent from the Middle East in 1799. Among these was a
letter sent by a family member of mine to his father in Normandy.”

Bennet thought a
moment. “1799… Napoleon’s invasion and the Acre siege.”

“Yes, indeed,” said Jeanne.
“The son informed his father that he had found two old scrolls in the town of
Safed. It appears from the letter that this was something his father had asked
him to look for before he left France.”

Bennet’s eyes lit up.
“Any clue as to what these scrolls might have been?”

“One clue is my
family’s Templar history.”

“Is that so?” Bennet
was intrigued. “I do not think you have mentioned your family name.”

“We are the de Charneys
of Normandy.”

“De Charney!!!” The
mention of the name had a dramatic effect on Bennet. “De Charney of Normandy?
Are you related to Geoffroi de Charney?”

“Geoffroi de Charney is
an ancestor of mine.”

Bennet was thrilled. “Are
we talking about the Preceptor of Normandy for the Knights
Templar in the beginning of the 14
^th
century?”

Jeanne nodded. “We
still have in our estate an old picture of him, though, I regret to say, in a
pretty awful condition.”

“Unbelievable,” exclaimed
Bennet excitedly. He was looking for words. “I usually tend to look down on
people who get excited about celebrities, and here I am, acting like one. I
find that talking to a direct descendant of Geoffroi de Charney really thrills
me…” he smiled in embarrassment.

“Who was Geoffroi de
Charney?” Luria wanted to know.

“Well,” replied Bennet,
“Geoffroi de Charney was the Templar leader of Normandy during the first years
of the 14
^th
century. He was the only one who stood up to defend
Jacques de Molay, the last Templar Grand Master, during their trial by the
church. The two, along with two other senior Templar officials, were tortured
by inquisitors in the service of the church and of Philippe the Fair, King of
France. Philippe perpetrated the demise of the Knights Templar in order to
acquire their fortune. The Templar leaders were forced to confess that the
Knights Templar was an order of heretics. At the last moment before sentence
was formally passed, de Molay changed his mind, denying his forced confession,
and de Charney joined him. Consequently, their punishment of life imprisonment
was changed to burning on a slow fire, and the two died at the stake later that
day, virtually ending the history of the Knights Templar.”

Jeanne nodded her head
in confirmation.

“But let us get back to
what you said before I interrupted you so rudely,” said Bennet. “You mentioned
letters telling of some scrolls found in Safed. May I see these letters?”

Jeanne pulled out the
letters and handed them to Bennet.

“These are not the
originals, just English translations,” he observed.

“That’s right,” said Jeanne.
“This is what I have brought with me here. I can assure you that the
translations are true to the originals. This letter here was written by Pascal
de Charney and the other by his friend, Gaston. The third is a consolation
letter from Napoleon to Pascal’s father. Pascal was killed in the battle of
Acre.”

“Very well,” said
Bennet. “Now please forgive me while I read these letters.” A few minutes later
he raised his head and looked at Jeanne. “This is exciting stuff. I am sure you
will have excellent material for your thesis.”

“What do you think?” inquired
Jeanne. “What could these scrolls be?”

Bennet smiled. “I
assume you know the prevailing popular legends about the Templar secret, the
Holy Grail or whatever, which was discovered by Hugues de Payens, the founder
of the order, on the Temple Mount around 1120. This has become a trendy theme
for lightweight fiction and action movies.”

“So you do not believe
in a Templar secret,” observed Luria.

Bennet turned serious.
“I did not say that. I am just amused by the number of these popular theories which
have sprouted, due to their huge entertainment potential. Even so, the basic
idea behind these theories makes some sense. The fact that a negligible order
of nine eccentrics became, within ten years, the darling of the Catholic Church
and an Empire in its own right, naturally makes one wonder how this could have happened.
The explanation that they had acquired some power over the Church is
conceivable. Do you have any other clues?”

“Well…,” said Luria.
“It seems that around the same time, an important Kabbalistic script went
missing in Safed.”

Bennet looked
surprised. “A Kabbalistic script? Where did you get this information?”

“I have some sources in
the Safedi community.”

Bennet’s face suddenly
lit up. “Of course, how could I ignore your surname? Are you related to him in
any way? I mean to the Holy Ari?”

“I have a relative who
claims that we are descended from this family.”

“You do not appear to
be an observant Jew, Mr. Luria.”

“I am not, but most of
my relatives are quite religious.”

“Just a moment, are you
related to Aryeh Luria?”

“Aryeh is my cousin.”

Bennet grinned. “I know
Aryeh. I know he supplies Professor Orlev with some good sources. I met him a
few times at history conferences, where he was Professor Orlev’s guest. I
assume Aryeh is your link to the Safedi community.”

Luria chose not to
comment.

“And what Kabbalistic
script is it, according to your source?”

“It was referred to as
'Or
Haganuz'
.”

“Very interesting.”
Bennet stroked his chin and thought for a while. “When you called, you said you
had been referred to me by Professor Orlev. Now, Yeshayahu Orlev is an expert
in Kabbalah, and I assume you have put the same question to him. What did he
say?”

“He was not sure. He
could not think of a link between Kabbalah and the Templars. He promised to
give it a thought."

“Did Yeshayahu tell you
we used to be close colleagues?”

“Yes.” Luria felt he
was walking on eggshells. “He told us that you two had done some research
together.”

“And did he tell you
why we no longer work together?”

Jeanne and Luria looked
embarrassed.

“Yeshayahu is a scholar
of Kabbalah, perhaps the most prominent one living. We both have an interest in
early Christianity. We have published together a few papers, which are
considered, with all modesty, groundbreaking in their field.”

“And what happened?”
Jeanne wanted to know. “What drove you apart?”

“Yeshayahu is bright
and original, but he has difficulties handling criticism and containing rivaling
points of view. Yeshayahu is of the opinion that there is very little, if
anything at all, between Jesus’s original preaching and today’s Christianity.
He claims that Jesus was an orthodox Jew, who never really said anything novel
and that all the ideas expressed in the New Testament had already prevailed
before Jesus’s time. Christianity, according to Professor Orlev, is no more
than a marketing and public relations gimmick introduced by Paul, and
eventually consolidated at the Nicaea convention.

Luria looked a bit
lost. “The Nicaea convention?” he wondered. “I don’t think I have heard of it.”

“It was a convention
called by the Emperor Constantine in 325 AD after he had decided, mainly for
political reasons, to create a state religion for the Roman Empire. They tried
to standardize Christianity there. They decided intricate matters like the
meaning of the Holy Trinity, God’s father-son relationship with Jesus and many other
questions. At the end of this process, Christianity became the formal religion
of the Roman Empire and the world's premier religion.”

“And because of his
attitude to Christianity, you broke up with the professor?”

Bennet smiled bitterly.
“Well, I totally reject his concept of Christianity. I do not think that
Yeshayahu, whom I suspect is an atheist at heart, understands the deeper layer
of religion, nor can he comprehend who Jesus was. Nevertheless, even when I
found his conclusions absurd, I could still appreciate the inner logic of his
claims. The real friction started when I confronted him with a theory of mine
which he totally resented. The tolerance for new ideas I expected from him was gone,
and our dispute became personal.”

“I confess I am very
curious to know what it was that so infuriated the kind old professor,” said Jeanne
hesitantly.

Bennet took his time
before answering. “Yeshayahu is a world-class expert in Kabbalah. For him,
Kabbalah is the pinnacle of Jewish creation, and he is very emotional about it.
The idea I suggested, and which I have since been able to substantiate even
further, was that Kabbalah included Christian themes and was founded on
Christian principles. Yeshayahu could not accept that. Our quiet, legitimate
academic discussion was transformed into a nasty quarrel and ended with a
break-up. He started ignoring me. He ostracized me.”

“Ostracized you?”

“Yes.” They could feel the
hurt in Bennet’s voice. “He stopped talking to me. This was very hard for me.
You see. Yeshayahu was my teacher and mentor. He was father and family to me.
At about the same time, I published an essay that made some buzz in the media,
and I was being harassed by these Hassidic Haredi fanatics. I needed support,
especially his support.”

“Who was harassing
you?” asked Luria.

“There is this circle
of so-called Kabbalists from Safed, your cousin’s friends, who found my work offensive,
and pronounced me a messenger of the devil.”

“And what did they do?”

“It started with
threatening letters, which still keep coming. There were some attempts to cause
the university to renounce me. The university, of course, stood by me and
firmly rejected this outrage. It did not stop there. My car tires have suffered
an improbable number of punctures. My front door was once set on fire and there
is more. Lately, I have had the honor of becoming the target of a
‘Pulsa
Denura’
ritual.”

“I’ve heard about that one,"
said Luria. “It was widely covered in the media a few weeks ago.”

“Pulsa Denura?”
wondered Jeanne. “What is it?”

Bennet gave her a
melancholy smile. “’Pulsa Denura’ means ‘a stroke of fire’ in Aramaic. It is one
of the most extreme devices in the toolbox of Practical Kabbalah. Its aim is to
cause the death of the cursed person within a year.”

Jeanne was startled.
“Are you not afraid?” she asked.

Bennet gave a short,
nervous laugh. “I am not superstitious, but I admit that this whole situation
is quite unsettling.”

“I saw it on TV,” said
Luria. “It was crazy.”

Bennet sighed. “It does
not end with curses. These men keep trying to intimidate me. Lately, I have a feeling
that I am being followed.” The look in his eyes was hard now. “But they will
never prevail.”

“And all this because
you claim that Kabbalah has Christian origins?” wondered Jeanne.

“Frankly, I must say I
find this claim odd,” remarked Luria. “Kabbalah and Christianity? It sounds
absurd.”

“Does it? These claims
are not that novel. Kabbalah uses lots of Christian themes. Take, for example, the
Holy Trinity.”

“The Holy Trinity? You
mean the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit? In Kabbalah?” Jeanne was astonished.

“I assume Yeshayahu has
told you about the
Book of Zohar
, the sacred script of Kabbalah.”

Jeanne and Luria
nodded.

"Let me give you a
few examples to demonstrate my point, OK?" Both nodded again, and Bennet
did not require more than that to launch a lecture.

“The Book of Zohar
often describes God as a union of three. For example, a few times it discusses
the verse “
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord"
(Deuteronomy 6, 4), a verse which has been used by Jews throughout the
generations as an expression of ultimate faith. Note that ‘The Lord’ or ‘God’
is mentioned three times in this verse. Why? The Zohar, always looking for the
hidden meaning, explains this verse as indicating the multiplicity of entities
within the one God. It interprets this verse as saying ‘there are three aspects
of God, and they are one’.”